Dirtbags

Isn't that just part of business? I mean if the person was smart they would keep up on the prices of the car. It's not the buyers responsibility to tell the person what their car is worth. They are trying to get a good deal.

I was surprised when I opened this thread that it wasn't a Ferrari getting broken into. Which would be a real show of dirtbaggery.

 

What about the responsibility of the first owner to keep tabs on the current market value of their cars?

 

Don't mean to sound like a saint, but I've also thought before what I would do in this exact situation. I think I'd have to be honest with someone who did not understand what he owned. Perhaps I'd offer to help with the sale, or ask for a good % of the profit. You obviously then risk having the owner exclude you. I also wouldn't feel right buying a car for pennies on the dollar, especially if it was an older person who needed the money.

 

I'm not sure, but some people are so ruthless that they'd steal from grandmother. With a barn find, you shouldn't be deceiving/taking advantage of someone just because they don't know a certain Ferrari is worth millions.

 

I can happily say that I've been in this exact situation and did the right thing. I was offered an Austin Healey 3000 in good shape by a newly widowed woman for $500. I went and looked at it, and I thought it was worth at least $10K (this was a while ago, they're worth more like four times that today). Instead of taking advantage of the woman, I helped her sell it. She ended up getting $12K for it, and I felt virtuous

 

As the saying goes .... A Fool and His Money Are soon Departed!!!!!

I know a guy who sold his home for less than $925,000 becasue the realtor convinced him that that's what it was worth.

House was worth at least $1,125,000.

 

i don't think this is a case of a fool and his money. it seems to be an unscrupulous person taking undue advantage.

 

if you had any brains at all you would know that 99% of the money in the world is made off stupidity or ignorance. Is the mechanic who pays 50 bucks for an alternator and sells it to a schoolteacher for 100 a dirtbag?????? only the strong survive buddy and nice guys finish last. now get busy hustling or hustle your ass to the welfare line.

 

I think any one who bought a Ferrari would have the sense to do a quick check somewhere of prices even if its checking eBay or maybe Fantasy Junction's web site.

Scamming a widow would be a different matter, especially if she were old and a bit disconnected; that would be immoral.

Edit, didn't see post #7 til after posting.

 

I think the problem here is the "Not for Sale"
If someone is selling ItemX and has not educated themselves on the value, then no crime no foul (assuming the seller is competent)
If ItemX is not for sale, it's just nasty business

 

So if you find an old car the somebody's Uncle Henry paid $2500 for back in the 70s, and Uncle Henry dies, and you find out about it and offer his widow Aunt Henrietta $10,000 for the car, thereby giving her a 4 times profit, are you taking advantage of her even if the car might be worth $40,000??? You are giving here FOUR times what Uncle Henry gave for the car 30 years ago. That sounds like a fair profit to me. If Aunt Henrietta wants more money, tell her to spend about 30 years learning about the classic car hobby. Why should she expect to get a big fat profit without doing any work or research?

 

Yes, it's YOUR duty to run around telling people the real value of things. Oh, and quit taking a free ride on F-chat and subscribe

 

If you dont care about the value of you own, then tough luck . How hard is it to look how much is a certain car worth nowadays with the internet ???

 

Some people pay a commission to those that sell your house for you, some people trade their car into a dealer on trade. Both options entail someone providing a service for you that you don't want to do yourself (and you pay for it). If you badger someone for (years?) to sell a car and they finally decide to sell it would seem to me that the seller has one of two options. 1. Go to a "dealer" that trades in vintage cars and works on fat margin instead of volume (read: they are going to gouge you), or 2., Place a classified and have 30 people you don't know come to your "farm" and tell you why they should pay you less than you are asking. There is some sort of fee that seems justified to me for this "farmer" to be able to deal with one person that has been badgering them for a while and that clearly knows what they are buying (read: won't come back post-sale if they feel shorted from what you represented in the classified ad). In this case it seems that the badgering buyer is entitled to some sort of discount for his "service". As with all cases, there is some sort of fair fee/discount that should be contemplated. Seems like this question has been asked since the world's first transaction.

 

Me either. I think it was a bad move, personally. One one hand I love a good deal, but I don't think it's right to rip people off either.

You don't have to be a selfish prick to be successful. Get that outta your head.

 

There comes a point in a persons life, if they live long enough, where some are very easily decieved or taken advantage of. The case could even be made that some older people are scared into doing things just to make someone go away. It may not be intentional to scare them, they maybe dont even realise the old person is scared, but I feel that if someone has a conscience, you know better than to screw some old timer out of thier stuff. My dad is old, and easily talked into things if someone wasnt watching. At his old place Sears had called, wanted to come out and do an estimate to redo the kitchen. 10 feet of counter and overhead cabinets, they were going to put on new drawer and door fronts, and a new counter top ..... $7500. In another case a HVAC guy wanted $20K to install a new furnace. If your parents are around and are old, they really need someone watching thier business. There are some real sharks out there.

On the other hand, there are the dirtbad relatives who screwed senior out of his old car, and I wouldnt have one second of remorse screwing junior out of that car. Like the kid who sells his grandmothers mint condition baby grand piano she left him for $100 to go buy dope. Mine! With any luck hes that Sears dude or his HVAC buddy.

So in my opinion, the question must be answered with reason and conscience. If you can screw some old widow out of something valuable, well, your a dirt bag.

There is another side though. Sometimes people just want something to go away, and they dont even want the money. In Ferris Beulers day off, Cameron was a kid with basically no father. His dad doted on the car before anything or anyone else. To Cameron that car was worth less than nothing. He just wanted a dad. You just have to weigh things out sometimes and try to keep a clear conscience.

 

Wow, what can I say?





Darrell.

 

Richard

I used to feel the way you did about situations as you described but recently I have changed my mind. I have help several individuals (widows and orphans) over the years free of charge in situations where they did not know the valuations of items. These folks profited greatly (over $300,000)from my free advise. In most of the instances I never got a thank you or a christmas card.

Last year I was at a yard sale and spotted a 14th Century Indian Tamil Bronze sculpture. Price was $300 and I promtly paid for the item. The sculpture is worth about $70,000. In the past I would have alerted the owner of its value but those days are gone. It is now sitting in my living room. Just what I have learned the hard way.

 

I have a similar story. I was one of the first people to spot a Jaguar E-type for sale in our local craigslist ads on a Friday evening one day last year. The car only had 51k miles on it and the interior still looked like new. The seller was a widow whose husband had passed away a few years earlier. The soonest I could arrange to see the car was Sunday morning. When I saw it and took a test drive, I thought it was under-priced by about $5k - $8k. I told her so. She said she thought she had priced it a little low because, after my phone call on Friday, she had over 100 phone calls for the car. Because I was the first to call, she delayed the other people from seeing it until after my visit. She said because I was honest, she'd still like to sell me the car for the original low asking price. We shook hands on it and a week later she drove the car to my house and I gave her a cashier's check for her asking price. So, being "the nice guy" sometimes works in your favor.

 

It's as if they took your subject as an invitation to strut.

Karl Rove buried the last shred.

 

It's interesting that there are 2 types of people who place ads to sell things. One type, like your little old lady, will allow the first caller to see the item first. Others don't care who calls FIRST, they will sell the item to whoever shows up with the cash FIRST. It seems that no matter which catagory that I fall under, the seller always operates under the OTHER procedure!!! I once was the first to call a guy about some antique stuff that included several old gas station pumps and some old jukeboxes. I made arrangements to drive down and see them on Saturday. He said to call back Friday night and get directions and verify that he would be there. When I called back on Friday, he had sold the whole boat load to somebody else. Call first, get directions first, make arrangements first,.......end up in last place. Most car/antique/whatever sellers are pretty wishy-washy from what I've seen. In reality, cash rules and it's first come, first served.

 

True. I wouldn't say 99%, but for better or worst, this is increasingly becoming the case.

 

I chuckled when I saw his profession because "Wall Street" was the first thing I thought of reading his post! I don't blame him though - his industry is rough-and-tumble and you have to have a thick skin to trade heavily (IMO, maybe I'm overthinking that). I'm don't think that's a healthy way to live life though.